AT&T to Offer Converged Cellular/WiFi Network Next Year

byaleconAugust 12, 2006

Andy Abramson made the local news in Santa Clara this past week, when he was part of a KTVU segment on VoIPÂ and cellular phones.Â It’s worth a view.Â

Andy is actually talking at the beginning of the segment using Sightspeed.Â Sightspeed is a great product, but what’s it doing in a segment on VoIP and cellular phones?Â And why’s he doing that when he’s got a perfectly good Nokia E61 (a WiFi / Cellular device) sitting on the table beside him?Â As it turns out, the E61 couldn’t connect to the public WiFi network in the hotel.Â He neededÂ to go throughÂ one of those ubiquitous login / charge screens that you see at every hotel and public hotspot out there today. So he made the demo call from Sightspeed for reporter Pam Cook.

When asked about this later in the segment, he made the statement that the cellular carriers weren’t ready, and didn’t want to do this.Â Ms. Cook then spoke with AT&T VP Melba Muscarolas who made the statement on air that AT&T, in fact, would provide a converged network, and that it would be available, initially only on AT&T hotspots,Â next year.